Almond Fig Tart – Day 30 Grain-Free Challenge

It’s day 30! What an amazing month we’ve enjoyed. When I planned this challenge, I didn’t realize what fun it would be. The truth is, it just sort of happened. I’ve loved playing with new ingredients in a totally different way and hearing from all of you about your progress and new recipes you’ve come up with. Such fun! It also just happens that day 30 falls on my birthday. When I began this challenge, I expected to bake a cake for my birthday to celebrate another year and the completion 30 days grain-free. A funny thing happened a few days into the challenge, though. I didn’t want grain anymore. There were no cravings. And the thought of baking something with grain today seems a bit odd.

We spent the day celebrating as a family at the Getty Villa in Malibu. If you haven’t experienced either of the Getty museums, put them on your list next time you’re in the L.A. area. The breathtaking architecture, art, and scenery complement the food at the museum cafe (featuring organic, locally grown produce whenever possible) so there’s no need to pack a lunch.

Over the last 30 days, I lost a total of 11 pounds and 5 inches. I have a lot more energy, my cravings have subsided, and my skin looks and feels rejuvenated. What results have you seen this month? Even if you’ve only been grain free for a few days, I’d love to hear about your changes.

The markets feature gorgeous figs right now, soft, ripe and plump. What better way to show them off than with almonds, some maple syrup, cream and a few eggs? This tart will make a showing at my holiday table this year. It has a bit more sugar than I’ve baked with lately, but it’s a dessert for a special occasion. The crust is good enough to eat alone. In fact, when I made it my oldest said, “Mom, sometime when it’s only you and me here at the house, can we make just this crust and eat the whole thing together?” No grain, and my daughter is asking to eat it as a treat? This recipe is a keeper.

Pour milk and cream into a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk maple syrup, 1 egg, and arrowroot in a small bowl. Using a ladle, spoon about 1/4 cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly until smooth. Slowly pour mixture into the saucepan with the hot milk, whisking constantly. Whisk until mixture begins to boil and thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla. Transfer pudding to a small bowl, cover and chill in the refrigerator until cold, about 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and adjust rack to middle position. Using a pastry brush, butter a 9-inch round tart pan. Place almond meal, coconut flour, sugar, gelatin and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 2-3 times to combine. Add butter and process until a dough forms. Press dough into and up the sides of the buttered tart pan. Bake for 12 minutes.

Place almonds and whole cane sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until almonds are ground (do not grind to a paste). Beat butter and maple syrup using an electric mixer until combined (it will be a bit lumpy). With mixer on low, add 2 eggs, one at a time, until combined. Gradually beat in the almonds and then 1/2 cup of the pastry cream (you will have some pastry cream left over). Cover and chill in the refrigerator until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread filling over cooled crust and arrange figs, cut side up in concentric circles over filling. Place tart on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until filling is golden brown and set, about 35-45 minutes. Let tart cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

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40 Comments

First of all -- Happy Birthday! Second of all -- you look fantastic! 11 pounds in 30 days?! You should be SO proud. And lastly, your fig tart look delicious. I love figs. Keep up the great blog, Carrie :)

Happy Birthday!! And congratulations on making it through your challenge! I'm on Day 14, and I can happily say that I've noticed several changes: I've lost right at 5 lbs. (wish I'd measured myself at the beginning, but I know I've lost inches, because I'm right on the verge of going down another size - yippee!). The cool thing, too, is that I'm not exercising MORE in order to lose the weight - I'm maintaining my normal level of activity. I don't snack nearly as much and - amazingly - I don't stay hungry all the time. Probably best of all (well, besides the weight loss), I FEEL good. I thought I had felt fine until I was about 3 days into grain-free and I realized how not-that-great I'd felt until that point. And, my moods are stable - which is a huge thing for this hormonal girl. :) I've finally ordered my copy of Wheat Belly. As I've explained to a few other people why we're going grain-free, I've mentioned your paraphrase of the book...and it occurred to me that I may actually want to STAY grain-free once the challenge is overwith (which is an amazing statement for me to make). So I figure that I need to actually read the book for myself to be able to talk more intelligently to other people about our choice. Anyway, that was a long comment (sorry!) - but a year ago, I would've scoffed at the idea of organics in general. This past summer, I would've scoffed at going grain-free. And here I am, looking forward to finishing the challenge (16 more days to go!) and seeing where I'll go from here. Thanks for issuing the challenge, and for your support through it!

Congrats on your progress! I love that "last year you scoffed at the idea of organics". I did too, many moons ago and boy have things changed! I've also found that I don't have to exercise more to lose weight either. I actually did a little experiment on myself and did one week of hard-core workouts and the next week took it easy. I alternated this for all four weeks and found that during the weeks I didn't exercise as much I lost more inches/pounds. I asked my nutritionist about this, and she said that some people actually do better when they aren't slaving away at the gym, but just do moderate workouts. Hmm.... Very interesting. I do hope you read the book. It's a great read! I'm excited to continue creating grain-free recipes, especially as the holidays approach. Keep it up! Can't wait to hear how your next 16 days go!

Hi Carrie, I read the book and I'm on my second week of being grain free. I too am amazed at how I don't crave the cookies and ckaes that I used to. I'm more conscious of what I'm eating and have noticed the inches coming off! I passed the dessert test this weekend when some friends invited us over to eat. It wasn't even hard to say no. Thanks for your delicious recipes!

I'm excited for you to keep experimenting with grain-free recipes as we get closer to the holidays, too! :) I think the thing that makes this easier is that with your recipes and grain-free versions of things, you've really helped make grain-free seem like a regular thing to do. For instance, I'm helping my mom & sister plan a shower and I'm going to make some (delicious) grain-free options that I can feel good about eating while knowing that other people are going to enjoy them, too! I should also say that this "weight loss without trying" is an interesting phenomenon for me. Ever I was about 22, I've been the girl that just couldn't lose weight and keep it off without a ridiculous amount of exercise and strict dieting. So this is very liberating and exciting to think that I could actually get back down into a healthy weight realm without feeling like I'm starving or going to kick the bucket with, yet, another 3 mile run. :)

This is a gorgeous tart and it's been really fun to see what you came up with this month for your grain free challenge! Pretty cool that you lost 11 pounds, too. Maybe I should give this a go...I don't eat a ton of grains but wonder if I could do without them altogether. I've done it in the past but it's been a while.

Happy birthday! It sounds like a wonderful day. I lost about 7 lbs over the month and didn't measure but know my clothes are fitting better. What I noticed most was that my snack cravings decreased dramatically. I don't know that I'll stay 100% grain free but I don't miss them at all. The kids never noticed with dinners but I didn't force them to be grain free during breakfast (millet or oatmeal typically) or lunch and they aren't big fans of rice. The most difficult part has been that I don' t like meat very much (broth is fine) so some days were difficult to plan a meal. Thank you for putting us to the challenge.

The tart is beautiful, and I want to eat a piece! I gave up gluten a while ago and I am always looking for tart crust recipes that are wheat free, so thanks for this one, I will try it soon. I just published a tart with figs as well, a little different than yours, and I have made it with other fruit too, I am so happy I get to eat dessert.

Happy Birthday, Carrie! and congratulation on your wheat free challenge. I started a little after you and I must confess I wasn't as consistent. But, I've noticed that the days I wasn't wheat free (our anniversary) I felt really icky. REALLY ICKY! My joints ached, and my hormones were radically out of wack. So, I'm committed to seeing the challenge through to the end. Thanks again for the challenge. You do look absolutely Marvelous! :)

Happy birthday, Carrie! Love hearing about your results from the grain-free challenge. When I did my 2-3 months low carb, grain-free one of the first things I noticed was how my skin cleared up. Since I started up with the sourdough in the last few weeks and have been eating a lot more wheat, my face has been breaking out like crazy and I've been feeling really sluggish. I've already started cutting way back on bread again and Phil and I have discussed going (mostly) grain-free again to see what changes we notice. I might have to pick up a copy of that book as well. Thanks for sharing!

Carrie, you and your girls look GORGEOUS. 11+ pounds lost? Holy smokes! That's incredible. And all of that change through healthy eating? Incredible. You are a food-lover's inspiration! Thanks for showing us that going without grain really can help us get healthy. xoxo, Brooke

Happy Birthday Carrie! You look amazing and your girls are so beautiful! I know you are a proud Mama! I bought Wheat Belly 2 weeks ago and have been grain free for one week. I'm down one pound (with almost no effort), I feel awesome (no blood sugar ups and downs), I have more energy (I've been fighting fatigue for the last few years), my fuse isn't as short as it used to be, and I have no more cravings and very few hunger pangs! I am NOT going back to wheat, EVER! It doesn't even sound good. I am a 35 year old Mom of triplet 6 year old girls, and I am excited to be entering this new way of life!

Hi Carrie, happy birthday! I started following your blog after reading your guest post over at Eating Rules. I am part of the Unprocessed challenge... and now reading this is challenging me to consider attempting to also go grain-free! I'm still kind of at the point of scoffing at the idea... but I'm really very inspired by this almond crust! I agree with your daughter; it does look like a treat! Thank you for sharing.